Katalin Veres

Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Ecology and Botany

The relevance of forests in mitigating biodiversity loss and the negative effects of climate change on the biota is largely shaped by below-canopy microclimatic conditions, which are buffered, cooler and more humid compared to adjoining open habitats. Water-filled tree holes (dendrotelms, DTs) are special tree-related microhabitats that host semi-a...

Increasing human activity is altering the structure of forests, which affects the composition of communities, including birds. However, little is known about the key forest structure variables that determine the richness of bird communities in European temperate oak forests. We, therefore, aimed to identify key variables in these habitats that coul...

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research...

Terricolous lichens are abundant in semi-arid areas, where they are exposed to high irradiation. Photoprotection is essential for the algae as the photobiont provides the primer carbon source for both symbionts. The UV-protectant lichen metabolites and different quenching procedures of the alga ensure adequate photoprotection. Since the long-term e...

Distribution data originating from earlier herbarium collections and recent biodiversity records form the basis of distribution analyses in lichen species with different ecological requirements, where the records allowed comparisons or showed clear trends. As the occurrences of lichens are strongly correlated to background environmental conditions...

In lichens, each symbiotic partner cooperates for the survival of the symbiotic association. The protection of the susceptible photosynthetic apparatus is essential for both participants. The mycobiont and photobiont contribute to the protection against the damaging effect of excess light by various mechanisms. The present study investigated the ef...

Inland dune ecosystems are rich in terricolous lichen species. However, these communities are sensitive to human activities, both locally and globally. Since terricolous lichens have a dominant role in semi-arid sandy grasslands, it is important to explore the composition of their communities and the environmental factors affecting them. We studied...

Bryophytes are poikilohydric organisms that can be used as model plants to study desiccation tolerance mechanisms. The main objective of this study was to examine the activities of the antioxidant enzymes ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT) and guaiacol peroxidase (POD) in the rehydrated and desiccated states in Syntrichia ruralis (Hedw.) We...

Dr Klára Verseghy (1930–2020), a student of the famous Hungarian lichenologist Ödön Szatala, was working as the curator of the lichen collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest between 1958 and 1985. She did a great development in the lichen herbarium arranging and registering the big collections of F. Fóriss, V. Gyelnik and Ö. Sz...

Acetone rinsing tolerance of the lichen species Cladonia foliacea is considerable - Volume 52 Issue 4 - Edit Farkas, Bernadett Biró, Zsolt Csintalan, Katalin Veres

Terricolous lichens are relevant associates of biological soil crusts in arid and semiarid environments. Dunes are ecosystems of high conservation interest, because of their unique, vulnerable and threatened features. The function of lichens is affected by the changing seasons and different microhabitat conditions. At the same time, inland dunes ar...

The terricolous species Cladonia foliacea (Cladoniaceae, lichenised Ascomycota) widely distributed in open, dry lowland steppe and rocky mountain grassland vegetation in Europe was chosen as a potential test organism for ecological experiments, since their thalli are producing cortical solar radiation-protective and UV screening pigment dibenzofura...

Three common terricolous Toninia species (Toninia opuntioides, T. physaroides and T. sedifolia) - formerly kept under Toninia coeruleonigricans - were investigated in the same locality for comparison of various substrate parameters of their microhabitats. Classification and regression trees (CART) were used to examine the niche preference of these...

A description of the lichen biota of three nature reserves – Kaugatoma-Lõo, Odalätsi and Viieristi reserves in Saaremaa island, Estonia is presented. In total 404 species are listed, of them 228 are recorded from Kaugatoma-Lõo, 169 from Odalätsi and 167 from Viieristi reserves. The composition of the lichen biota of the reserves reflects the availa...

The former Toninia coeruleonigricans now represents three almost equally frequent species in Hungary. Toninia opuntioides, T. physaroides and T. sedifolia were investigated in the same locality for comparison of various parameters of their microhabitats. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the niche preferences of these species. More than...